COMMENT

The Best Man for the Place.

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
January 10, 1917

If the President has succeeded in persuading Professor Taussig of Harvard to take the chairmanship of the new Tariff Commission, the country is to be congratulated. In a sense the work the commission has to do lies in a new field, and everything will depend on the way it is done. Congress is not likely ever to abandon any part of its prerogatives in tariff making, but a body of advisers who have the general confidence of the country cannot fail to exert a powerful influence. Of the capacity of Professor Taussig there can be no question. No living American economist surpasses him in achievement or reputation. Doubtless those who like the old way of tariff-making--a compromise among selfish interests--would call him a "theorist." So he is; so any student of so intricate a subject must be. And his knowledge of theory qualifies him all the more to treat the subject broadly, with due regard to national needs. It makes little difference what precise place he occupies in the long range of opinion from the highest of high protection to the freest of free trade. Many men who call themselves practical have gone astray by lack of economic study. This deficiency a scholar like Professor Taussig will be able to supply. --Philadelphia Public Ledger.